Jim Crow in Punch and Judy

In reading the histories on the Web site of who and what Jim Crow was, I was extremely
surprised to not find any mention of Jim Crow's part in the world's most famous (and
longest running) puppet show, "Punch & Judy." Jim was introduced as a character, sometime
in the latter part of the 1800s. He was sometimes referred to as Old Jim Crow from
Jamaica, then other times he was a servant to Punch's landlord/neighbor, Mr. Scaramouche.
Sometimes he was simply referred to as a "distinguished foreigner," which was an obviously
friendlier title, which was also used at times for a Chinaman character as well. Obviously
this character was phased out over time, and is rarely, if ever seen, at all today
anywhere.

Jim Crow was a very stereotypical black gentleman, who looked very much like a Sambo
character. He wore a fez, with a tassle, and usually had gold hoop earrings in both
ears. Also, when he spoke it was very exaggerated, much like "Amos & Andy", and he
sang a lot during the show too. He would sometimes come over to Mr. Punch's house
and intervene between Punch, and his master, Mr. Scaramouche, whose dog Toby would
bark at and bite Mr. Punch. Mr. Punch and Jim would also have bickering and name calling
battles between them, with Jim referring to Punch as "Red Nose," and Punch calling
Jim "Black Face." I hope that you will choose to research this extremely famous persona
of Jim Crow more, as it certainly deserves to be included in the historical context
of not only this site, but the Jim Crow Museum as well.